The Fight Begins! Hope you guys enjoy it!
Chapter 25: Rebirth
The 4 Captains entered the main hall of Las Noches and there she was. Keiko, sitting high and mighty on her throne that rested on a pillar that rose high into the air. She looked down at the captains with a look that showed nothing but utter bloodlust, a sickening grin across the face of the ruler of Hueco Mundo.
"Keiko…." Soi Fon said with a hint of sadness, looking at the ugly transformation that the person she considered to her little sister had undergone.
"A full-fledged hollow," commented Byakuya.
Komamura stared at his former ally, eyes fixated upon his target. A former friend, but now a foe.
Hitsugaya couldn't believe what he had seen. When he first laid his eyes on the hollowfied Keiko, he knew that the Keiko he loved and held dearly was long gone. All was seemingly lost for him.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" the reigning queen of Hueco Mundo taunted the 4 captains.
The captains, bar Hitsugaya, who was still on his knees bawling his eyes out, unsheathed their zanpaktous and prepared for the fight of their lives. One by one, they charged at the hollow, only for them to be swiftly swept aside by the precise and graceful strikes of Keiko. The thing was, she wasn't even trying. Soi Fon came first, but Keiko had intercepted her movement mid flight, tossing her former master over her head and sending her crashing onto the ground below. As Byakuya went at Keiko, he too was out-manoeuvred as the hollow queen skilfully dodged his advances, before sending a cero that Byakuya had managed to avoid direct contact with by shunpoing out of the way at the very last second.
"KEIKO!" screamed Komamura.
"Who's a good doggy? Who's a good doggy? Komamura is!" taunted Keiko as she flashed a sickening smile across her face.
Komamura, enraged by Keiko's actions, charged right for her, aiming to cut her down to size with his zanpaktou. Taking a huge leap of shunpo, Komamura went ahead and slashed Keiko right across her chest. The queen of the hollows fell back as her eyes widened in shock…..wondering how her adversary had gotten the best of her.
"Impossible….." said Keiko with the blood pouring out of her mouth.
Falling to the ground, she laid there without moving a muscle.
"KEIKO!" yelled Hitsugaya who still couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. Any hopes of Keiko returning to normal…..gone in an instant.
"Hitsugaya taichou," said Komamura. "You have to let it…"
"Let it what…..Komamura taichou?" an all too familiar voice said.
"Impossible…Keiko?" said Komamura as his eyes widened in utter horror, with his body paralysed with fear.
The hollow queen had played her opponent. Little did Komamura know that when he had slashed Keiko earlier on, she had utilised her shunpo clone technique to fool the wolf captain. She now held Komamura's head in the palm of her hand, lifting him up the ground with much ease as she stared at her husband.
"Say goodbye to your friend, Toshirou…..Cero….."
And with a snap of her fingers, a large golden-coloured cero was fired from out of thin air that obliterated Komamura in an instant, reducing his body to nothing but pure ashes.
Toshirou couldn't believe it…..Just like that, his comrade in arms and fellow captain was dead. Soi Fon and Byakuya, now just managing to get up from the blows which they had suffered from earlier, returned to Hitsugya's side, with their zanpaktous raised.
"YOU FOOL!" Soi Fon yelled. "Keiko isn't there anymore! And because of you, Saijijn is dead!"
"Bankai…Senbonsakura Kageyoshi….."
As the captain of the 6th Division utilised his bankai, Soi Fon took it up a notch as well.
"BANKAI! Jakuho Raikoben!"
As the thousands of petals surrounded Keiko, Soi Fon took aim and fired her weapon directly at Keiko, causing a large explosion that sent all three captains flying several hundreds of metres away. As they regained their footing, the smoke from the explosion began to clear. However, the captains could make out a figure exiting the smoke. To their disgust, Keiko had taken a direct hit from both Soi Fon's and Byakuya's bankai, and yet she emerged after the attack, totally unscathed, not even a single scratch existed on her skin.
"Is that all?" Keiko said.
"You bitch…"
"Time to…." Then, Keiko stopped in her tracks, witnessing a single strand of her hair falling to the ground right in front of her face. She stared at the strand of hair as it fell and when it finally hit the ground, she switched her gaze and focused at Soi Fon and Byakuya with an ever-intense look.
"I was going to have a little more fun but now you've really done it…..my turn to go all out….."
As Keiko lowered her head, the ground began to shake and the structure of Las Noches began to crumble.
"We've gotta get out of here!" yelled Soi Fon. The three captains made a hasty retreat and upon exiting the building, had witnessed that the sky had gotten much darker than usual as storm clouds gathered. Multiple lightning bolts struck the building, and then, the party of three heard a loud, ghostly voice, coming from within Las Noches.
"Bankai…"
Energy gathered and hundreds of lightning bolts struck the walls of Las Noches. The ground shook violently, as if a earthquake was taking place.
"Captains!" their comms rang as Seireitei tried to contact them.
"We're getting multiple readings of magnitude 9 earthquakes across the world of the living! What's going on! The….."
Just like that, the comms went dead. Such was the destructive power of Hollow Keiko's bankai that it caused a surged in energy that was strong enough to permeate both into Seireitei and into the world of the living that caused destruction. Her reiatsu was deadly, almost as if it would bring Armageddon upon the entire world. Quite simply put, her power was of those of titans.
"Herakuresu Ite….(Herculean Marksman)"
As the dust cleared, there emerged the most powerful spiritual being to have ever existed. Hollow Keiko walked with a deadly aura, her rifle being a sickly black colour as a result of the hollow infused within her very being.
The captains were stunned. Her reiatsu was on a totally different level. They fell to their knees, struggling to move just an inch.
"Bye bye…..captains…." said Keiko as she took aim.
As she focused on her gaze through the lens of the rifle, she suddenly pulled back.
"Wait a minute….where are you…..you white haired son of a bitch…"
Just then, a zanpaktou of ice stabbed right through her heart. Slowly turning back, she saw that Hitsugaya was behind this sudden attack, a look of serious intent in hi eyes.
"F…..you…..how….."
"You've forgotten didn't you?"
"What are you talking about…" Hollow Keiko struggled to say.
"You taught me your shunpo clone technique…and helped me to perfect it…"
"You bastard…..you could have…..done this….so long ago…..yet you…..let Doggy die?"
"No…..I couldn't. I was weak and lost…but Komamura's death spurred me and so I decided to play you…You're no longer the Keiko I know…"
"You bitch!...I….AHHHHHHHH!"
KEIKO'S INNER WORLD
"KEIKO! THE TIME IS NOW!"
"This power…..Toshirou….you came….." said Keiko as the tears fell.
"Alright Sharpshooter…..LET'S DO THIS!" said Keiko as with renewed strength, broke out from the prison that her hollow had locked her in and escaped.
HUECO MUNDO
"AHHHHHH!"
"What's that light?" Soi Fon said as visible energy started to dissipate from Hollow Keiko's body.
"Impossible….." said the Hollow as Keiko emerged from within her.
Coming out, the petite captain of the 3rd Division escaped, landing in a genuflecting like position, before with a sudden swiftness lifting her left leg high behind her, kicking Hollow Keiko right on the jaw which knocked her backwards quite a distance.
"Keiko….."
"Toshirou…"
The couple stared at each other, before running over to hug in the most comfortable warmth that there could possibly be.
"I missed you….."
"I missed you too….."
Before they could move in for a kiss, a large cero came their way forcing the couple to take evasive manoeuvers.
"How sweet….." Hollow Keiko said as she slowly approached the remaining 4 captains.
"You'll regret what you've done," said her Shinigami counterpart.
"Enough talk you bitch…time to fight!"
"You got it…" Keiko said as the captains charged for a all out assault on Hollow Keiko.
And so began the fight,…..the fight to end it all…..or quite possibly…the fight that would start it all.
That's the end for this chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it! Do continue to read as the story reaches it end!